High school dropout rate cut in half in two decades

The number of young people dropping out of high school has been
slashed in half in the last 20 years, according to new data from Statistics
Canada.

In 1990-91, nearly 340,000 or 16.6 per cent of young people aged 20 to 24
had not completed a high school diploma and were not attending school.

But in the last two decades, that number has dropped dramatically, falling
to 8.5 per cent of young people or 191,000 by the 2009-10 school year.

More young women continue to stay in school, with a dropout rate of 6.6 per
cent, better than the 10.3 per cent of young men, however that gap has narrowed
over the previous 20 years. In 1990-91, the rate was 14 per cent for women and
19.2 per cent for men.

Rates were also lower for young immigrant adults than for their Canadian-
born counterparts and higher for Aboriginal youth in this age cohort compared
with non-Aboriginal youth.

The data also looked at the effect of the economic downturn in 2008-09, when
nearly one out of every four dropouts in the labour market was unable to find a
job. Among those who did find work, their earnings were less than for those
with a high school diploma.

Statistics Canada also found that the rates fell in all provinces, with the
biggest changes occurring in most of the Atlantic provinces. On the East Coast,
rates fell from the 15 to 20 per cent range in the early 1990s to much lower
two decades later.

Newfoundland and Labrador, which had the highest dropout rate in the early
1990s at 19.3 per cent had the most significant change over the past 20 years,
plummeting to 7.4 by 2010, one of the lowest in the country.

British Columbia, at 6.2 per cent, has the fewest number of young people
without a high school diploma.